If you go down to the woods today ... you're likely to find an outdoor classroom and pupils learning lessons from nature, says Education Reporter Aled Blake

BIRD SONG in the classroom is not something you would usually expect when you send your children to school.

But it is not as strange a concept as it might sound.

Children are now being taken outdoors to learn about woodland environments at the same time as they are doing maths or English.

The forest schools project is being run by the Forestry Commission Wales.

Its aim is to encourage children to appreciate woods and forests so future generations will appreciate them.

North-East Wales Forestry Commission education officer Ffion Hughes explained, "The Forestry Commission and the Forestry Education Initiative are pushing to deliver a lot of the sessions and, basically, teaching teachers about the importance of the environment, linking in with the foundation phase in school."

Forest schools originated in Scandinavia in the 1950s as a way of teaching about the natural world. By the 1980s it became an integral part of the Danish early years programme.

In 1995 a group of Nursery Nursing students visiting Denmark witnessed the benefits of forest school for themselves and brought the idea back to Bridgwater College in Somerset.

Here, lecturers who accompanied the students considered how they could apply what they had seen to the childcare provision in their own Early Excellence Centre.

Since then the idea has grown and forest schools are spreading throughout England and Wales.

The first forest school in Wales was run in South Wales in 2000 and the concept is now being developed in the majority of Welsh counties.

More than 300 people in Wales have undergone forest school leader training, of whom 69 have gone on to become fully-fledged leaders.

Ms Hughes said, "It is interesting that forest schools started when a teacher returned to teaching from World War II and he saw that his children didn't know the difference between an oak tree and a holly tree.

"So he started taking his children outside to learn about the woodland environment. Now in Scandinavia most children are being taken outside to be taught."

The Forest Education Initiative has played a lead role in developing forest school in Wales since 2000.

Forest school leaders in Wales include woodland owners, teachers, craftspeople, early years specialists and youth workers.

The resulting forest schools are diverse and use a range of woodland settings to meet the needs of different client groups.

And the belief is that children gain a huge amount they would not ordinarily get from a normal classroom.

"The children come out to work in this setting," said Ms Hughes. "They come on a regular basis - usually once a week.

"We generally do with them whatever topic they are doing on the curriculum at that time. We link in with what they are doing but we use the outdoors to teach them whatever they are doing.

"This helps develop their confidence and teaches them to take risks, which is a healthy thing for them to learn.

"And all this comes as they go through the forest school process. They can take on more tasks which have a higher risk involved.

"It's a process rather than something that can be done on a one-off basis."

The scheme is aimed at younger children, mainly those in primary schools.

"But there are people looking after different age groups all over Wales," said Ms Hughes. "Other officers are working with disengaged teenagers.

"We find that foundation phase children and disengaged teenagers get the most benefit from this scheme.

"They are doing whatever they would be doing in the classroom but the benefit is that we can go out into the woods and have a hands-on experience.

"They can experience things for themselves and shy children come out of their shells and increase in confidence."

A typical programme involves the forest school leader initially talking to the parents and explaining the sorts of activities the children will be doing.

The group visits the same local woodland site on a regular basis ideally throughout the year, except in extreme conditions.

Games are played and small achievable tasks are set, such as hide and seek, building shelters, learning how to use appropriate tools, lighting fires and cooking.

But it is those children who normally struggle in traditional classroom settings that apparently get the most out of the forest school.

"In one class recently, the children made models of characters from the Chronicles of Narnia using woodland materials to bring them to life.

"We discussed what you can hear and smell in the woods and how they thought that would relate to Narnia. They came up with their own ideas and performed plays based on the Narnia theme.

"So it shows that they can cover all the things they are covering in school in the woods.

"The requirement is that as a forest leader you must have an educational qualification or a forestry community qualification."

For Ms Hughes becoming a forest school leader was not an obvious choice, but she says she has since grown into the role.

"Having had next to no experience or contact with children before, it was with a mind full of misgivings that I set off to do my training in May 2003.

"I graduated with a degree in History from the University of Wales, Bangor, in June 2001 and not knowing exactly what I was going to do with my life, I got a job as an administrative assistant in a local college.

"A year later, I got a job with the Forestry Commission as an administrative officer. They informed me in the interview that part of the job would include providing admin support to the Forest Education Initiative and occasionally may involve working with children, and asked would that be a problem?

"I settled into my new job, and after a couple of months the boss informed me that a place had been reserved for me to go on a forest school leader training course in Usk.

"There was no getting away from it, I'd just have to give it my best shot. Going on a course with teachers and foresters with little old me knowing nothing about either topic was daunting.

"But after a week's worth of practical activities and a crash course in educational theory and brain development, I could tell a billhook from a pair of loppers and could wax lyrical about the theory behind different learning styles and knew my gross motor skills from my fine ones."

Ms Hughes says she gets a huge amount of satisfaction from being a forest school leader and working with children.

"Delivering forest school allows me to get to know the children I am working with and I get to see them improve and develop over a series of weeks. Seeing children grow in confidence as they succeed at mastering small achievable tasks week by week is a real honour.

"Such as the quiet little girl who couldn't look me in the eye during the first week she came to forest school and would only talk in whispers.

"By week five she had progressed to shouting across the site, 'Ffion, Ffion come quick, I've found a worm, he's trying to get up my sleeve. Ugh'.

"The creativity and artistic talent that children have is astonishing and my 'here's one I did earlier' examples are nearly always put to shame.

"My misconceptions of children have changed dramatically and I can laugh when I look back on my worries.

"Children, as much of a clich as it sounds, are a joy to work with. They're honest, they want to be your friend, their innocent comments can leave you tickled for the rest of the day and nothing compares to that strange, tightening feeling you get in your stomach when a session goes well. "

She added, "We've had research done to look into the long- term benefits of this scheme.

"It increases awareness and understanding of the natural world and gives them more confidence in school.

"For children who have low self-esteem, it's an opportunity for them to thrive.

"Those who are not suited to the classroom setting really come on in the forest school. They improve their social skills and improve their language and communication.

"The teachers also have the chance to observe their children in a different setting. Children who come to a forest school are nagging their parents to go out to the woods and the countryside on the weekends.

"Forest school is an inspirational process that offers children regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self esteem through regular hands-on learning experiences linked to the national curriculum in a woodland environment.

"I am constantly trying to dream up new activities to meet different teachers' topics. From covering Celts for one programme to moral dilemmas the next helps to keep me on my toes and motivated."

And the beauty of the scheme is that it can be appreciated by all children from all parts of Wales.

As Ms Hughes explained, "We see children from urban areas coming into the woods and it is the only chance they get to get off the concrete.

"Even those who live in rural areas sometimes don't have any knowledge of the countryside.

"We are trying to fill the gap in the knowledge of the outdoor environment."